Westinghouse Powers Up On Contracts Orlando's Power Generation Unit Has Netted Deals Of More Than $450 Million To Build Utility Systems In Other Countries.

December 13, 1996|By Richard Burnett of The Sentinel Staff

Westinghouse Electric Corp.'s power generation business has landed more than $450 million in contracts to build electrical utility systems for power plants from Asia to South America, the company said Thursday.

With the new orders, the Orlando-based power generation business has secured more than $2.2 billion in contracts this year - mostly in the fast-growing international market, company officials said.

''These contracts underscore the strength of our power generation business and our increasingly global reach,'' said Randy H. Zwirn, executive vice president of Westinghouse Power Generation, which employs 1,650 in Orlando.

Terms of the new contracts call for Westinghouse to supply power turbines, generators, construction and support services to plants in Thailand, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Mexico and South Korea. One domestic deal involves work for a utility in Pasadena, Texas.

Westinghouse now receives 80 percent of its power generation orders from Asia, South America and other areas of the world where governments are improving their infrastructure.

Meanwhile, power plant construction in the United States has slowed significantly, in part because utilities want to save money to deal with the potential effects of deregulation.

Westinghouse's Orlando operation plans, designs and engineers electrical utility systems. The equipment is manufactured at plants in the Florida Panhandle, Texas, Alabama, North Carolina and Canada.

The new deals are not expected to create jobs or change Westinghouse's plans to reduce its power generation work force, the company said.

Last month the Pittsburgh-based conglomerate said it would eliminate 110 jobs in power generation - including 30 in Orlando - to streamline the organization and become more cost-efficient.

Companywide, Westinghouse is cutting 1,100 jobs as part of its plan to divide into two publicly held companies: one grouped around its CBS television units and the other around its industrial subsidiaries.